Page 24 - Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts

Solid waste biorefineries
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A. Saravanan , R.V. Hemavathy , T.R. Sundararaman ,
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S. Jeevanantham , P. Senthil Kumar and P.R. Yaashikaa 2
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Department of Biotechnology, Rajalakshmi Engineering College, Chennai, India,
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Department of Chemical Engineering, SSN College of Engineering, Chennai, India

1.1 Introduction

Solid waste (SW) increasing from different sectors is a serious problem in the urban
areas of the world. Population growth and industrial wastes are the major sources
for the generation of enormous SW; it poses a serious threat to human health and
environmental quality (Al-Salem, 2019). SW management all over the world is
looked as a real test to common bodies. Municipal solid waste (MSW) includes
commercial and domestic wastes generated in municipal or notified areas in either
solid or semisolid form, excluding industrial hazardous wastes but including treated
biomedical wastes (Anthraper et al., 2018). Conversion of SW is a stinging and
expansive issue in both urban and rural zones in many developed and developing
countries. Among every single living being on Earth, human beings are the main
species that damage nature so drastically. As in 2014 European families disposed
household waste of more than 200 million tons (Eurostat, 2017; Hietala et al.,
2018). The SW is spread in a wide area of land, which, therefore, causes severe
contamination. Regardless of having lower waste generation by India than devel-
oped nations, the image of waste management in a large portion of the Indian
towns, urban areas so far shows colossal scope for development (Martı ´nez et al.,
2013; Soni et al., 2016).
Plastic waste directly and indirectly affects living organisms throughout the eco-
system, including an increasingly high impact on marine life at a macro and micro-
scale. Wood waste comes mainly from industry, construction and demolition, as
well as packaging. According to the quality grade, wood waste is recycled; inciner-
ated, with energy recovery; or treated at special facilities. Treated wood is hard to
discard utilizing landfill or exchange strategies since substantial components can
drain into the encompassing condition. Due to large amount of embodied energy,
rubber tires take a long period of time for degrading; tires also contain heavy metals
that can leach into the environment, and they can burst into flames, which are hard
to douse, and discharge lethal materials (Wang et al., 2017). The untreated organic
wastes can generate methane emissions that leach into ground water, which may
cause risk to human health by spreading diseases. Even the nappies cause diseases

Refining Biomass Residues for Sustainable Energy and Bioproducts. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-818996-2.00001-6
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